The present invention relates to shipping containers, and more particularly, to shipping containers having stacking tabs formed from a single blank.
In the shipping container art there are many container designs that are manufactured for various end uses. One popular end use for a container is holding fresh fruits and produce during packing, shipping, for displaying at the retail level. Usually when packing produce such as tomatoes, peaches, mangos and the like there is a typical size requirement in that the container volume is sized to hold a certain amount of product. There is also a strength requirement given the weight of product packed and the shipping and handling requirements. Such containers are generally rectangular and have a variable height dimension ranging from three to twelve inches. Further, these containers are transported, stored, and displayed in a stacked configuration.
A well known single piece container design for holding produce is a single-piece tray type where a single piece of corrugated cardboard is cut and scored to form a flat blank. The blank has a bottom, two side walls hinged to the bottom and at least two end walls hinged to the bottom. To form the container, the walls of the blank are folded upwardly to be normal to the bottom and then connected to form the containment volume within the four walls. Variations are well known where top closure flaps are hinged to the top edges of the side walls, and for stacking strength, a second end wall can be hinged to the top edge of first end wall to then form a double layer of material thereby enhancing the stacking strength.
Typically, the tray-type containers are stacked on top of one another during shipping, storing, and displaying at the retail level, as was mentioned above. Accordingly, suitable stacking strength is one requirement of these type of containers so that the containers can be stacked as much as ten containers high. There have been improvements made to the trays by the addition of stacking tabs, which are insertable into another tray in the stacked position. With the advent of stacking tabs, it has been the desire of the container industry to develop a tray type-container with stacking tabs that is made from a single piece blank, and provides the necessary stacking strength, while reducing the amount of material used.
The present invention is directed to a tray-type container having stacking tabs. In accordance with the present invention, a single piece containerboard blank is provided for forming a tray-type container having an inner cavity and at least one stacking tab extending upwardly from the top of the container. The blank includes a bottom wall panel, and an outer side wall panel having an outer edge and hingedly connected to the bottom wall panel by a fold line. An inner side wall panel is provided having an outer edge and hingedly connected to the outer wall panel remote from the bottom wall panel by a two spaced-apart fold lines. The spaced-apart fold lines are interrupted by first and second cut lines. The container blank further includes at least one stacking tab positioned within and formed substantially from the inner side wall panel by the first and second cut lines. The stacking tab includes a base section connected to the outer side wall panel and partially defined by the interrupted spaced-apart fold lines, and a top section hingedly connected to the base section by a fold line and terminating at a position remote from the outer edge of the inner side wall panel. When the container black is erected, the inner side wall panel is folded about the two spaced-apart fold lines to overlay the outer side walls such that the stacking tab extends outwardly away from the top edge of the container formed by the spaced-apart fold lines.